The most difficult time in my life
The most difficult time in my life
Paula Stave
The most difficult time in my life
“When I see the migrant workers’ broken bodies and eyes without hope, I want to embrace and wipe away their fears. It makes me angry and helps me to keep fighting the oppressive system.” Irene Fernandez. When someone asks me what an immigrant means to me, I say it is leaving all behind to pursue a dream, it’s hard work followed by stress, and sometimes you have to leave your pride behind to give your children a better life.
November 18 of 2016, I was 13 years old, I had to leave my country Colombia, so I could have a better future in a country that was not where I was born; I still remember when my mom told me the idea of moving to another country, I was jumping up and down for joy, since she told me we were going to live close to Disney parks and that I was going to see Mickey. I was just a child, I didn’t know the sacrifices were going to be like leaving your family and missing them was like or learning a new language so you could communicate with other people or like my mom who was a single mom raising I child in another country in which she could find a job because she was undocumented and she didn’t speak the language, the only job that she could find was cleaning and the payment was barely enough to survive and the job was not easy at all. I remember when she came home from work and she was as tired as an old man, and I also remember her crying because of money and because she felt humiliated so many times for not understanding the language.
First day of school, what a terrifying day in a new country, making new friends and learning a new language was an obstacle, I remember entering my new school I was guided by a dean who speak Spanish. my first class was math and when I entered the teacher was speaking in Spanglish, a combination between Spanish and English, “uff! what a relief” I thought since I didn’t speak English at all, the teacher ask me where I was from and I said Colombia, he introduced me to a girl who was Colombian too and told me to sit down beside her. I had three teachers who speak Spanish but they taught the class in English but four classes were just in English and I felt so frustrated because I couldn’t understand anything. I came home from school and my mom asked me how my classes were and I just cried. I missed my friends from Colombia and felt so weird in that school because everything was different.
Judgment has always been a barrier between countries, if you don’t look like a certain amount of people you are being judged by someone if you don’t talk like them if you don’t walk like them. Before I came here I was used to dressing differently and when I came here my mom couldn’t afford to buy me clothes like the other girls so they judge me in English because they knew I didn’t speak their language.
Leave my country made me realize that I want something better for my country and for my family this country has given me so many opportunities and has opened so many doors for me, I became more independent since I was raised just by my mom, learned from her that woman can be strong too as men and that they can get by on her own. I learned that everything takes time like learning a new language or adapting to a new country, I also learned to values more the things that have been given to me like food and clothes.
